Overview of How Full Is Your Bucket?

How did you feel after your last interaction with another person?

Did that person -- your spouse, best friend, coworker, or even a stranger -- "fill your bucket" by making you feel more positive? Or did that person "dip from your bucket," leaving you more negative than before?

Organized around the metaphor of a dipper and a bucket and grounded in 50 years of research on the effects of positive and negative emotions, How Full Is Your Bucket? shows you how to increase the positive moments at work and in life while reducing the negative.

This bestseller is filled with relationship insights, powerful strategies and engaging stories that will inspire lasting changes in your interactions with others.

Theory of the Dipper and the Bucket

Each of us has an invisible bucket. It is constantly emptied or filled, depending on what others say or do to us. When our bucket is full, we feel great. When it's empty, we feel awful.

Each of us also has an invisible dipper. When we use that dipper to fill other people's buckets -- by saying or doing things to increase their positive emotions -- we also fill our own bucket. But when we use that dipper to dip from others' buckets -- by saying or doing things that decrease their positive emotions -- we diminish ourselves.

Like the cup that runneth over, a full bucket gives us a positive outlook and renewed energy. Every drop in that bucket makes us stronger and more optimistic.

So we face a choice every moment of every day: We can fill one another's buckets, or we can dip from them. It's an important choice -- one that profoundly influences our relationships, productivity, health, and happiness.

About Drops

Drops are a simple and effective way to act on the Theory of the Dipper and the Bucket. They are personal messages of positive recognition that are individualized, sincere and specific. And they are a great way to share kind words, give unexpectedly, and fill someone's bucket.

Businesses, schools, and places of worship have used drops for more than three decades, and millions of people have sent and received them. Some people keep the drops they receive for many years as a reminder of their accomplishments.

Anyone can give a drop. Once you're signed into your account, you can create and send drops to others.

Related Research

How Full Is Your Bucket? is based on more than 50 years of comprehensive psychological and workplace research.

Coauthor Don Clifton -- Father of Strengths Psychology and Inventor of CliftonStrengths -- devoted his life's work to studying positive, or strengths, psychology.

Clifton and his colleagues at Gallup surveyed some 4 million workers on the topics of recognition and praise, and they delivered startling results. Gallup found that individuals who receive regular recognition and praise:

increase their individual productivity

increase engagement among their colleagues

have better safety records and fewer accidents on the job

are more likely to stay with the organization longer

receive higher loyalty and satisfaction scores from customers

Drawing on Clifton's research, Gallup's massive database, and discoveries from the world's leading social scientists, How Full Is Your Bucket? distills decades of discoveries into a book that can be read in about an hour.

Fast Facts From How Full Is Your Bucket?

The No. 1 reason people leave their jobs: They don't feel appreciated.

65% of Americans received no recognition in the workplace last year.

Bad bosses could increase the risk of stroke by 33%.

A study found that negative employees can scare off every customer they speak with -- for good.

9 out of 10 people say they are more productive when they're around positive people.

Relentless negativity resulted in a 38% POW death rate -- the highest in U.S. military history.

Do you have low impact, some impact, or high impact on your environment?

Answer the Positive Impact Test statements regularly, and use them as your guide for improvement.

Reviews & Press

Praise for How Full Is Your Bucket?

"(Tom Rath and Don Clifton) drew on Gallup research and millions of interviews to argue that this positive give-and-take leads to solid marriages, higher worker satisfaction and productivity, and a happier world."

-- O, The Oprah Magazine

"This slender volume offers an abundance of insights and inspiration. I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to dramatically improve their work life and strengthen their relationships."

-- Deepak Chopra

"For all the veneer of easygoing pleasantry, this is serious business."

-- USA Today

"In this brief but significant book, the authors, a grandfather-grandson team, explore how using positive psychology in everyday interactions can dramatically change our lives."

"Clifton and Rath paint a compelling picture of the good things that happen when people are encouraged, recognized, and praised regularly, as well as the emotional, mental, and sometimes even physical devastation that can occur in the absence of such positive encounters . . . Leaders who want to eliminate or avoid this kind of destruction should make How Full Is Your Bucket? required reading for themselves and their people."

-- John C. Maxwell's Leadership Wired

"Useful anecdotes that managers in particular should pay attention to."

"I loved reading this book and highly recommend it. I'm buying copies for those I love and care about the most."

-- Paul Higham

Former Chief Marketing Officer, Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

"A powerful experience for every reader and an invaluable tool for energizing every enterprise."

-- William Robertson

Chairman, Weston Solutions, Inc.

"If there were a Nobel Prize for building a quality individual, this book deserves it."

-- Mike Johanns

Former Governor, State of Nebraska

"This book reaffirms the value of caring and compassionate relationships. Tom Rath and Don Clifton have created simple, but powerful, strategies for transforming the business of work and finding the beauty in life."

-- N. Joyce Payne

Founder, Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund

"The book is a quick and memorable read. It should be part of the core curriculum for any corporation trying to build a positive culture."